Hawks push South Dakota but fall 88-72 to top women's basketball team in the Summit League
Jan. 29—GRAND FORKS — At first glance, nothing seems out of the ordinary by looking at South Dakota's 88-72 Summit League women's basketball win over North Dakota on Saturday at The Betty.
But there is more, considerably more for UND.
The Hawks pushed the top team in the Summit for most of the day, much to the delight of the 1,500-plus fans who provided an energy at The Betty that hasn't been witnessed the past few years.
For a few moments, South Dakota's 15-game win streak, the longest in the country, was shaky as the Coyotes found themselves leading only 71-66 early in the fourth quarter.
But the Coyotes (11-0, Summit, 18-4 overall) turned it up in the closing minutes, led by 6-foot-2 senior Hannah Sjerven — whose 30 points were complemented by four other Yote starters who combined for 56 more points.
At the end of the day, though, it was clear that UND's six-game win streak before Thursday's loss to South Dakota State was legitimate and that the Hawks' progress is still on an upward trajectory.
"This is the way we're capable of playing," said UND coach Mallory Bernhard. "We can win games like this if we have the effort and intensity we had today. I loved our team's fight today. The Betty was rocking and I credit our team for that. The fans want to see quality basketball and our players are giving them that."
South Dakota hasn't lost since Nov. 26 when the Yotes fell to Texas A&M. And the last time USD allowed more than 72 points came in its 73-58 loss against Northwestern on Nov. 25.
After a slow first quarter, UND put together its best quarter of the season in the second, outscoring the Yotes 27-14 to lead 37-36 at the break — thanks to 18 first-half points from Kacie Borowicz.
"Everything was falling for us," said Borowicz, who finished with 22 points. "We shot 80 percent in the quarter. We were finding the open player. Everything was working. We went into halftime and said we have so much momentum right now but we knew they were going to come out harder than they did at the start of the game."
And the Yotes did just that. Sjveren, who hit three 3-pointers, took over early in the third quarter, scoring 10 of the Yotes' first 12 points. Her three-pointer with 8:18 left in the quarter gave the Yotes a 44-42 lead. It was the last of 10 lead changes in the game.
South Dakota, however, had to withstand one more UND push in the fourth. An 8-2 UND run cut the deficit to 71-66 but Sjerven responded with another 3-pointer. UND could get no closer than five the rest of the way.
South Dakota had great balance but UND placed four players in double figures. Claire Orth finished with 14 points while Melissa Leet added 12 and Maggie Manson 11.
The Coyotes shot 53 percent and made 10 of 20 three-pointers. And they scored 20 points off UND turnovers and cashed in 12 offensive rebounds for 13 more points.
Still, UND left knowing it had a chance to beat the top team in the league. And the Hawks also rebounded from their disappointing 75-49 loss against South Dakota State on Thursday.
"We know we can play with the top team in the league," said Orth. "We have an end goal in mind but we have to focus on each game. Everyone is going to be coming for us every game because we've been doing so well. We can't get ahead of ourselves."
South Dakota, which received votes in the latest USA Today Top 25 poll, has won its last 20 Summit League games dating back to last season.
South Dakota coach Dawn Plitzuweit praised UND's effort.
"What Mallory has done in terms of bringing the fans back and creating a team that's fun to watch, plays really, really hard and has created an atmosphere is something that we talked about with our team before the game," said Plitzuweit. "UND couldn't have played any better in the second quarter. Ultimately, we feel very fortunate to get on the road with a victory."
UND (6-5, 12-10) now hits the road for two games next week, at Denver and at Omaha.
